national surname chiming

Chapter 431 You Can Pretend Not to Know

When Zhu Shuren heard Huang Degong's explanation, he immediately laughed.
It is a good thing that there are more despicable speculators in the enemy army, but there is no need to delve into it too much, you can turn a blind eye to it.

Regardless of whether it can be reused in the future, you can first give this surrender some money and honorary title, and use it there as a mascot for recruiting surrender, which will help to better disintegrate the hearts of the enemy camp in the future and bury a trick.

Therefore, Zhu Shuren did a good job of security, and asked the guards to thoroughly search the surrendered generals who claimed to have killed Abatai. Then he personally interviewed them, and let him decide right from wrong and give an explanation.

Soon, a young Han general in his 30s and [-]s, who had just cut his braid, was brought up. He was still [-] steps away from Zhu Shuren, and he knelt down and kowtowed in pleading guilty:
"The sinful general Yuan Qing... the former Tartar Han army is in the Yellow Banner Geng Jimao, pay homage to Prince E! The sinful general knows his way back and begs the prince to take him in!"

Zhu Shuren's face darkened slightly, and he completely cut off the idea of ​​really reusing this person: "Geng Jimao? Geng Zhongming is your father? Where is he?"

It turned out that he was still a character in the hardcore traitor circle and the King Sanshun faction!
Geng Jimao kowtowed: "My father...before the war, he was originally stationed in Pizhou and was responsible for guarding Huai'an from the imperial court's heavenly soldiers going north, but Dorgon worried that Abatai's main attack force would not be enough, so he sent two troops, my father and the fake beizi Shangshan. They were all transferred from Huai'an and Xuzhou to Fengyang.

Before this decisive battle, Abatai wanted to keep his troops to continue besieging Shouxian County and Bagong Mountain. Most of my father’s troops and horses were left on the battlefield of the siege. , Let us Han people lead the team first.

This crime will bring some troops from the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army Banner, and go south with Abate to participate in the field battle.Seeing the majesty of the prince, I couldn't help but cast aside the darkness and turn to the light, begging the prince to show me the way! "

After thinking about it for a while, Zhu Shuren realized that the Qing army did have such a tradition of controlling Han generals. When it was time to divide the troops, some of them were sent out to fight in the field, and some relatives were left behind to lead the troops. This was regarded as keeping hostages.

But under normal circumstances, this kind of situation is to let the father lead the troops out and leave the son behind as a hostage.

It’s just that Geng Zhongming is old, he has been in the Qing Dynasty for more than 15 years, and he will die of old age and sickness in two years of life in history, so Abate did not let him go back and forth to participate in the field battle this time, so he stayed in the Shouxian battlefield. His young and strong son led the team to fight in the field.

Now that he knew that Geng Zhongming, an old traitor, was still in Shou County, Zhu Shuren had a reason not to reuse Geng Jimao for the time being.After thinking about it for a while, he pretended to be considerate and said:

"You are not afraid that things will be exposed. Qing dog killed your father? How dare you surrender? Your father killed the governor and officers and soldiers stationed in Denglai, and even brought red barbarian cannons to attack the Tartars. It was an unforgivable crime! But you Being able to kill Abatai to surrender in front of the battle can also make atonement and meritorious deeds.

Now that your father is still in the enemy camp, if Gu Ruo immediately openly rewards and reuses you, after the news leaks, your father will definitely be liquidated by Yue Le and Bo Luo, and even if he is not killed, he will be imprisoned.

Therefore, for your father's safety, and for the sake of your filial piety, I will not disclose your position to you for the time being, but only reward you with gold and silver.When the Shouxian and Fengyang battles are over, if you can completely drive out the Tartars and annihilate the main force of the Qing army, you can also persuade your father to abandon the dark and turn to the bright. At that time, I will count the merits together and publicly give you real positions and titles!

Right now, you can temporarily publicize to the outside world that you have died in battle and died to defend Abate, so that the Tartars can also relax their vigilance against your father.

But I can't guarantee whether this plan will work, you were too publicized just now, at least thousands of prisoners of war have heard you preach that you killed Abate, and I can't guarantee how long you can keep it a secret! "

Geng Jimao didn't know what it was, he only thought that Zhu Shuren was careful, and for his father's safety, he temporarily concealed the credit he claimed for killing Abatai.

He also heard that Zhu Shuren also promised to make him invisible first and reward him with gold, silver and jewels, so he felt at ease, thinking that Zhu Shuren would let him go and give him glory and wealth.

To be honest, he was also entangled in the surrender today. After all, his own father is equivalent to a hostage, and he is still inside the Qing army.

It's just that this kind of family of traitors often has very soft bones. When encountering a life-and-death situation where one's own life is in danger, who cares whether the father is a father or not?As long as I can escape alive, I will die if my father dies!

"Thank you for the reward, my lord! My lord's sage candle illuminates thousands of miles! At the end of the day, I have to vote for my lord, like seeing the sun after a long drought! If my father could have met such a wise lord as the lord, he wouldn't have lost his footing and become eternal hatred!" Geng Jimao said He was so excited that he still bowed his head, Zhu Shuren asked someone to pull him down, and the matter was over.

Seeing Geng Jimao leave, Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and other veteran generals of the Ming army were a little unconcerned:
"The lord really wants to use this kind of despicable villain again? The Geng Zhongming's family is despicable and shameless, but only Kong Youde can compare with it, far better than Shang Kexi, and even better than Wu Sangui and others who have no choice but to surrender temporarily.

It was Geng Zhongming and Kong Youde who brought the Da Ming's Hongyi Cannon to the Tartars for the first time!Since then, the poison has been endless!The heaviness of this crime is that the late emperor once said emphatically that not killing would not be enough to anger the common people.

Abata obviously didn't kill him, so it's okay for the prince to forcefully admit it for the time being in order to stabilize people's hearts.But at most a little money is given to avoid guilt.If the title is returned... I'm afraid it will spoil the world. "

As soon as Zhu Shuren raised his hand, he retreated from the left and right sides, and only whispered to Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong: "How can this king not know? There will be other places. This is just a temporary falsehood, to stabilize Geng Zhongming.

Once there is a better opportunity, Geng Jimao must be used as an introduction to cause another civil strife in Shouxian, Fengyang and other departments of the Qing army!At that time, I, Daming, will be able to do my best on the Fengyang battlefield! "

Hearing that Zhu Shuren said that he didn't really want to reuse and honor each other, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong felt better and expressed their understanding.

And Zhu Shuren is such a good person, seeing the second general's grievances, he took advantage of the heat to win people's hearts: "Anyway, we know that Abate died of illness, and we can't publicly publicize Geng Jimao's self-proclaimed achievements for the time being.

It is better to say that the two generals led their troops to attack together. In the process of finally annihilating the enemy of Feixi, the rebellious army joined forces to kill Abatai. As for who did it, don't get entangled. You two are divided equally.

If Abatay is ultimately determined to have died of a sudden illness, the total contribution of the generals in our army will be less. If we can give more credit to everyone, why not do it?

Take the death of Abatai as an extra reward of ten thousand taels of gold, 10 taels of silver, and ten thousand bolts of silk and satin. Then look at your generals, who has not been knighted yet, but who has worked hard and can convince the crowd, who cannot be hereditary Earl.

Discuss the distribution on your own.Whoever's subordinate takes the earl will get less gold, silver and silk, two-thirds for those who don't get the title, and one-third for those who get the title.

The gold and silver that should be given by Geng Jimao are paid by the king himself, and cannot be made public. "

Both Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong themselves are already enfeoffed marquises. They have made great contributions to the killing of Duoduo and the recovery of Huaiyang later, so of course they themselves do not care about this earl.

But there is an extra ten thousand taels of gold and one hundred thousand silver, and so many other ingenious rewards, which can win the hearts of the subordinates. They are also very grateful, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed, crying:

"The prince is lenient and benevolent. There is no match in the past or the present. The last general has to die for the prince. He is determined! If the descendants can still be generals, they are also willing to serve the prince's descendants for generations to come!"

Zhu Shuren already knew that Abatai died of a sudden illness, and he was willing to pretend to be confused, and said to the outside world that he was beheaded.
Due to his bad luck, his subordinate failed to make further contributions, so he turned a blind eye and closed his eyes as if the other party had made such a great contribution, and paid more rewards out of his own pocket...

Where can such leaders be found?
This is a clever way to pay more money and honor to his subordinates in a different way!
Now in the back of the Ming Dynasty, there are still four or five families of distant branch vassals with little strength, and five or six families have been abolished as commoners and seized titles, but the blood is still the descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang.

But this adds up to about ten families, but whoever dares to jump out to question in the future.Or if something happened to Zhu Shuren's son, and he needed another child from the princess's wife before adopting him, then the generals in the army would definitely support Zhu Shuren unconditionally, and whoever dared to jump would be killed.

Are those princes who raise pigs considered gross?They are nothing more than the blood of Zhu Yuanzhang in the patrilineal lineage. The son of Prince E also has the bloodline of Zhu Yuanzhang in the matrilineal line, isn't that enough?

The elite soldiers and generals in the world, for many years, have eaten the meal of Prince E, received the salary of Prince E, and received the reward of Prince E’s ingenious name. They have official positions, titles, honors and descendants. Of course, they must be absolutely unconditionally loyal to Prince E One line!

What Prince E said is that the world is righteous and righteous!
Zhu Shuren waited for Cao Bianjiao Huang to vent enough of his achievements, and he also ordered the two of them to stand up gently, politely, without being too polite, and let everyone prepare their own troops, continue to clean the battlefield, recuperate the wounded, and withdraw the troops back to the camp to prepare for the follow-up counterattack.

All the generals promised not to mention it.

……

The words are divided into two parts.

The Feishui battle on the eighth day of September ended with the Qing army being wiped out with as many as 8 people. Naturally, it would take several days of chaos for the defeated troops to flee and gather.

After fleeing back from Abate's confidant guards, after learning that Abate had never retreated and died of a heart attack in the battle, the morale of the Qing army in the battlefield of Shou County and Fengyang's old lair in the rear naturally also plummeted. The panic further exacerbated the subsequent chaos of the Qing army and the distortion of tactical deployment.

Of course Zhu Shuren would not let go of this opportunity, so he asked Huang Fei, Lin Chengcheng and other troops leading the main force of the infantry to rest and prepare for another attack.
However, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong were allowed to select [-] cavalry who remained in relatively good condition, and they formed two armies to pursue alone.

The Ming army had a total of more than 3 cavalry in the Hefei theater, but a considerable number of them suffered casualties and damage in the decisive battle of Feishui, and their condition was not good.So being able to pick out [-] to continue high-intensity combat is considered pretty good.

Fortunately, there were not many cavalry from the Qing army on the opposite side. With the two white flags plus the blue flag, only 7000 people escaped alive, and there were wounded soldiers among them. In fact, all of them could not be devoted to the next battle.

The state of the Ming army declined after the war, and the state of the Qing army naturally also declined. It is impossible to put all one basket on the Ming army.

Zhu Shuren predicted that the death of Abatai would lead to chaos in the command of the Qing army for a period of time, whether to continue fighting or to defend, opinions will definitely be different, and people who oppose Yue Le and Boluo will also emerge, which is rare and rare Take the opportunity.

He estimated that this period of chaos would last as little as three or four days, or as much as five or six days, seven or eight days, and it just happened to take advantage of the situation to expand the results of the battle.

What's more, the Ming army still has more than 3 defending troops with well-preserved combat strength in the encirclement of Bagong Mountain and Shou County. bigger.

Only two days after the decisive battle, on the tenth day of the ninth lunar month, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong, with [-] cavalry, suddenly turned their guns and rushed to the Qing army's encircled mountain camp south of Bagong Mountain after a feint shot the day before ——

Before this offensive, the Ming army made some fake moves. Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong first crossed the Feishui calmly, and when they arrived at Feidong, they pretended to squeeze persimmons to soften the persimmons and chased down the defeated Qing troops who crossed to Feidong. , The posture of chasing Fengyang all the way.

In the end, they were only halfway through the chase, and suddenly turned their guns to the north, and went straight to the back of the Qing army's encircled camp south of Bagong Mountain.

In charge of the defense of Shou County and Bagong Mountain were the generals of the Ming army Liu Zhaoji and others. There were a total of 1 soldiers and horses, of which about [-] were in Shou County, and more than [-] were in the village and fort of Bagong Mountain.

The total number of Qing troops in charge of the encirclement was [-], which was [-] more than the total number of Ming troops on the defensive side. However, people have been panicked for the past two days.

In addition, the Ming army controlled the Feishui River, and the Qing army garrisoned in Feidong, Feixi, and Huaibei, it was difficult to watch and help each other in a hurry.If any one place is attacked by the Ming army's concentrated superior forces, the other two Qing troops can only watch.

So when Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and Liu Zhaoji joined forces and picked the softest persimmons first, the already panic-stricken Qing army encircling the south side of Bagong Mountain quickly chose to break through and retreat to the area between Shou County and Fengyang. Huaiyuan County resident.

The Qing army ran very fast. The advantage is that the loss of troops is relatively small. The 1000 troops only paid more than 2000 casualties before breaking through the encirclement. They were chased and killed by the Ming army and captured [-] people. The remaining [-]% of the troops were finally the whole body and flee.

It's just that the Qing army retreated so simply that it caused very little damage to the Ming army. Under the pincer attack of Cao Bianjiao and Liu Zhaoji, the attacking Ming army only killed or injured a few hundred people in exchange for a small victory of annihilating [-] enemies. .

Cao Bianjiao originally had a chance to continue the pursuit, but considering that there was still a larger force of the Qing army surrounding Shouxian County in Feixi waiting to outflank, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong gave up the small and pursued the big, and did not pursue deeply.

Zhu Shuren and Cao Bianjiao didn't know that there was a traitor Geng Zhongming's troops in the Qing army that they let go all the way around Bagong Mountain—his son was captured just a few days ago, and he was afraid of death and defected to Daming.

After Geng Zhongming escaped, he fled directly back to Fengyang City, the old home of the Lianghuai Qing Army. The guards of the Fengyang Qing Army did not guard against their own people, but let them enter the city after verifying the identity of the main generals of the Geng Zhongming Army. .

……

The news that the Qing army camp surrounding Bagong Mountain in the east of Fei was destroyed, and most of them fled back to Huaiyuan and Fengyang, of course, spread to the Qing army camp outside Shou County in the west of Fei that night.

In Feixi and Huaibei, there are still more than 3 Qing troops in total. They all know that they will definitely be surrounded by the Ming army sooner or later. .

Reluctantly, the Qing army's previous move to bypass Shouxian County and Bagong Mountain to the south was aggressive, because the key nodes of the waterway were not removed, and the warships could not keep pace with the army.

The Qing army in Feidong could escape directly to Huaiyuan by land along the south bank of the Huaihe River. However, if the Qing army in Feixi wanted to escape, they had to cross the Huaihe River north and retreat by marching in Huaibei.Either cross Feishui to the east first, and then retreat along Huainan.

No matter which road you choose, the Qing army has to cross a river, and the location of the three forks of the Huaihe River in Feishui was blocked by the Bagongshan Fort of the Ming army!The boat can't come in!
The Qing army had no choice but to rely on the small boats collected in Feixi during this period, as well as the temporary rafts, and slowly ferry the troops to Huaibei in batches to prepare for an orderly retreat again.

In addition, it was found that it was not fast enough, so we could only ask some Qing army ferries and warships located in the lower reaches of Shou County and on the main stream of the Huaihe River to sail upstream in the dark under the blockade of the Bagongshan Fort, pass through dangerous areas, and then help ferry them.

However, the defenders of the Ming army in Shouxian County are not prepared to let them go——

Shou County was originally an important military town in Huai-Fei, and its purpose of existence was to facilitate traffic along the Jiang-Hui River for thousands of years. Therefore, Shou County was of course built next to the Fei River and the Huai River. It can also hide some warships.

After discovering that the Qing army wanted to escape, the Ming army of course opened fire. Not only did the Hongyi cannons on the Bagongshan fort not spare any ammunition, but even if they had no vision, they fired at the Huaihe River's waterway, and from time to time they could catch the passing Qing army ships. A click or two.

The warships of the Ming army that had been hiding at the Shuimen Wharf in Shouxian County, which had been preserving their strength, also broke out immediately and wreaked havoc on the Huaihe River, intercepting and killing the Qing army who were trying to escape across the river.

It's a pity that the Qing army retreated overnight, the night was very dark, and the Ming army couldn't gather too many boats to intercept it in a hurry, so as long as the Qing army was not caught, they could still cross the river safely.

But also because of the gloomy sky, as long as the Qing army was unlucky and caught by the Ming army warships nearby, it would basically die.

The Qing army also couldn't call friends in the dark to call for friendly troops to gather and fight back together, they could only fight on their own.However, the natural advantages of the southern army in terms of naval combat power and the Ming army's advantages in ship-borne light artillery are destined to be able to crush the Qing army as long as it is a single ship on the water.

After a night of fighting, the Qing army was killed by the Ming army at a very low price. Thousands of people were killed. Thirty thousand Feixi and Huaibei surrounded the Qing army. In the end, only [-] or [-] escaped.

The casualties of the Ming army were also less than a thousand, and the battle was almost as exciting as the battle of Feidong the day before.After two days, the total loss of the Ming army was no more than [-] to [-], while the Qing army on the opposite side lost more than [-] troops.

The continuous weakening, one ebb and the other, greatly deteriorated the balance of forces between the two sides.Not only did the Qing army suffer continuous damage, but even the soldiers who retreated alive suffered a drastic loss of morale and panic.

The total number of Qing troops in the Fengyang theater, which also had a total number of 9 to 8, has been wiped out by more than [-] and nearly [-].The remaining nearly [-] people were also shocked overnight, and retreated repeatedly, and finally shrank completely to Fengyang, Huaiyuan, and Linhuai counties.

To put it bluntly, it is shrinking to Fengyang as the core, plus several satellite counties extending along the Huaihe River to the upstream and downstream of Fengyang, defending Fengyang, and losing everything else.

The offensive and defensive momentum between Ming and Qing was completely reversed, and the morale of the Qing army was low and the defense was strictly guarded, while the Ming army was preparing to take advantage of the trend and counterattack in order to recover the central capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The Battle of Feishui ended on the eighth day of September, Bagongshan was relieved on September [-]th, and Shou County was completely relieved on September [-]th.After a short rest, the Ming army continued to advance along the Huaihe River. The nearly [-]-mile journey from Shouxian County to Huaiyuan was completed by the Ming army while fighting, but it took only three to five days.

On September [-]th, the vanguard of the Ming army arrived outside Huaiyuan City. Two days later, the main force arrived one by one, preparing to set up camp, build equipment and attack the city.

The total force pursued by the Ming army reached a huge 14—the total force of the Ming army in the Hefei theater was originally 18, and now more than 2 people need to stay behind to defend the rear. , so pulling out 2 people is indeed the limit.

The Qing army on the opposite side has 8 people left, but it has finally stabilized its position.

At the same time, the news of the disastrous defeat ten days ago and the death of Abatai in the battle was also rushed to Beijing after [-] miles, four days each way, and sent to Beijing for Dorgon to know.Dorgon was also given two days to digest the bad news and make adjustments.

Therefore, when the Ming army besieged Huaiyuan, the Fengyang Qing army was formally appointed by Dorgon, and Bo Luo led the remaining [-] Fengyang Qing army, followed by Yue Le, and the other generals did not pursue the responsibility for the defeat. , Asking them to keep their duties and stabilize the front line.

Yue Le and Bo Luo are blood brothers, both are Abatai's direct sons.

In terms of age, Yue Leju is the eldest brother, but Boluo's military talent and historical achievements, as well as his performance evaluation in Dorgon's heart, are slightly stronger than his brother's. In an emergency, Dorgon asked Boluo to take over temporarily It's not wrong to go through a crisis.

Although Yue Le was a little bit unwilling, but the brothers were not jealous to that extent, and quickly accepted the reality, and planned to work together with the deputy Ju and his younger brother to avenge his father through difficult times.

Yue Le still can't do the kind of thing like burying the corpse and attacking each other with armor.

After Boluo stabilized his position, he immediately convened the generals for the first time as the coach to discuss the strategy of defending the stable front.

Yue Le, Shang Shan, Geng Zhongming, Yier Deng, and Ye Bilong lined up in order to obey orders.

Prior to this, other important generals above the general level of the auxiliary countries under Abatai's command were either killed or seriously injured, and could no longer participate in the follow-up military meetings and combat commands.

And even the five people in front of them may not be safe.Zhu Shuren is still holding a ticking time bomb, but unfortunately Boluo doesn't know yet.

"Father died in battle, and our army has lost nearly [-] troops. Only three counties in Huainan are in the hands of the imperial court. How should we hold on and wait for reinforcements? I ask all the generals to work together and work together!"

(End of this chapter)